Thursday, May 31, 2007

Palestine Solidarity Project activists with other Israeli and international activists joined over 100 Palestinians from the village of Dhahariya to open a roadblock that prevents nearly 90,000 people in the region driving to Hebron and the rest of Palestine.

(BEIRUT – 4 April 2007) – Rasha Zayoun shyly brings out her drawings. The teenager likes to draw women’s clothing, mostly long flowing dresses and vibrant skirts. Since the 17 year old had her leg blown off by an Israeli cluster bomblet, however, many of her former activities have become far more difficult. Rasha spends most of her time confined to the house in Maarakeh. Each Sunday, says her mother Alia Salman, friends pass by to take her for a stroll around the southern Lebanese village in her wheelchair.

On 5 January, Rasha’s father bought back what seemed to him to be an innocent and curious object. The poor Shia family has no television to follow the news. Unaware of its potential for destruction, Mohammed Zayoun put the leftover from last year’s conflict with Israel into his sack along with the thyme that he had collected. His 4 year old daughter Aya Zayoun found it there and gave it to her big sister. In the explosion that followed, Rasha lost her left leg. Her mother and brother Qassem Zayoun were also struck by the shrapnel.

Around 1 million cluster bomblets remain scattered across Southern Lebanon. The Israeli justification for their use at the time was to cover a wide area to eliminate Hizbullah’s Katyusha attacks against Israel. The United Nations Mine Action Co-ordination Centre in Southern Lebanon (UN-MACC-SL) spokesperson is skeptical about the validity of such claims. ‘We weren’t expecting this,’ says Dalya Farran. ‘Most of the cluster bombs were dropped in the last three days.’

With a high dud rate – roughly 40% in Southern Lebanon according to Farran – remnants remain dangerous. Essentially, argues Kathleen Peratis from Human Rights Watch, ‘Duds become de facto landmines, capable of exploding much later when touched by a plough or a child.’ Handicap International states that 98 percent of cluster bomb victims are civilians.

Established in 2001, UN-MACC-SL coordinated landmine clearance following Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon. Now, teams from around the world must return to areas that had already been cleared of landmines to eliminate cluster bombs ( click here to read about the New Zealand team).

UN-MACC-SL hopes to clear the bomblets from the highest priority areas – residential and agricultural – by the end of the year. Cluster bombs, however, have a tendency to linger long after the conflict is over. Dozens of people still die every year in Laos, to cite but one example, from bombs dropped by the United States during the Indochinese War. A total of 11,000 Laotians have been killed or maimed by these weapons – post-conflict. Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, there have been an estimated 38,000 cluster bomb victims in Vietnam.

Researcher Dr. Franklin Lamb with a CBU-58/B cluster bomb. The Vietnam War-era weapon is well past its expiration date.

Ironically, some of the cluster bombs dropped by Israel on Southern Lebanon were manufactured in the U.S. during this era. A CBU-58/B cluster bomb lies on the grass amongst the samples collected by the Mine Action Group (MAG) at their base near Nabatieh. It would have dropped 650 BLU-63 submunitions onto Lebanese soil. Some probably exploded, others would have been scattered, waiting to be set off. Most likely by a civilian. Researcher Dr. Franklin Lamb points to a yellow label. ‘Warranty Terminates 2/74,’ it reads. This cluster bomb, used by Israel in August 2006, expired 32 years earlier. Expired weapons have a far higher dud rate.

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Yasmine Ryan is a graduate of the University of Auckland, in Political Studies and French language. She is currently interning with a Lebanese newspaper in Beirut, as part of her Masters degree in International Journalism at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Aix-en-Provence.

Indymedia Beirut is part of the international network of independent media, media for the people, by the people: http://beirut.indymedia.org.

HELEM is a queer collective based in Beirut that promotes LGBT human rights in Lebanon: www.helem.net.

Lens On Lebanon is an international grassroots documentary initiative formed during the Israeli bombardment of 2006. The documentary material, photo narratives, and video diaries of daily life gathered here have been conceived, produced, and contributed by residents of Lebanon from all walks of life.www.lensonlebanon.org

Stop the wall campaign is a grassroots initiative in Palestine that is working to expose and counter the Israeli apartheid system: www.stopthewall.org.

Palestine is not only Palestine. And the stones that the child generals throw to the Zionists are not only stones. Palestine is a call; a call to the human, to the humanity. Each thrown stone is a hope for the ones who try to find a path for the future of humanity.

We, wanted to be the volunteer spokesmen and spokeswomen of this call. What brings us together is the power of the hope resisting in Palestine. For us, it is an internationalist duty and pride to give support to the Palestinian national cause. The legitimacy and righthess of this cause is accepted by the labouring humanity.

We know and we believe that, there are the warmest feelings in the hearts of our country's peoples, just like the peoples of the world. We know and we believe that, our peoples are cursing the brutality of the Zionist occupiers and the imperialist bandits which take place all around Middle East and the world. Our peoples had shown their protests against the Zionist genocide in Palestine and the occupation brutality in Iraq by going to the streets many times. They did not hesitate to give a helping hand to the Palestinian people. Our peoples showed that they want to take place in the ranks of brotherhood and unity against the imperialists, Zionists and their collaborators.

The aim of our initiative is, to develop this will for friendship and solidarity, to generalize this political sensitiveness, and embody it with genuine tools. The Zionist brutality is burning and demolishing Palestine, before the eyes of the whole world. The land of Palestine became a ruin. The Palestinians are imprisoned, wounded or ill. The Palestinians are unemployed, hungry and poor. Zionism wants to make Palestine and the Intıfada surrender by not only massacres but also by poverty, epidemic diseases and economical blocade.

We think that it is important to satisfy these needs even with small-scale supplies. We believe that our peoples will give material support for the satisfaction of the needs of the Palestinian people. We believe that our peoples will take place in such a mobilization of help and solidarity. The history had proven that the real friends of the peoples are only other peoples. We want to prove this fact again between our peoples.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Hiyam Noir

Does the Zionist - Walt Disney - Turn Around In His Cold Dark Grave Now?

"World Zionism today, constitutes the last racist ideology - still surviving in the Zionist's state of "Israel", it is the last outpost of "apartheid". Israel constitutes by its mere existence - a complete defiance to all international laws, rules and principles, and the open racism manifested in the Jewish State - is a violation of all ethics and morals known to Man kind.

The Zionists consider themselves to have the sovereign rights to oppress and vilify other people. - having had an enormous monopoly over the information services in the West.The Zionist have always manipulated their way to advantage - in promoting their version of the conquest of Palestine, and their wars against neighbouring Arab states, and the tales – the "history" of the Jewish people, especially concerning the WW2 - and the so-called "holocaust".

Zionist strategy in the media - are in the hands of the advocates of International Zionism and the promoters of Jewish racism - they have become one of the most efficient weapons in the Israeli armory- even more effective than the threat of the hundreds of nuclear warheads that Israel possesses – and promote - in the name of security.

Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism, and hatred against everything that is German - have been the main points of the defamation-campaigns - in Zionist-controlled medias against those who they considered to be the enemies ( critics ) - of Jews and Zionist nationalism.This fact together with the influential Jewish organizations working in all Western states - mapping off and spying on the anti-Zionist resistance and buying our politicians to the Zionist cause, constitutes the fundamentals of Zionist policies."

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Arab students chanted pan-Arab and anti-Israelslogans, including the Palestinian Authority anthemBiladi, "Palestine is Arab" and chants linking Beirut,Gaza and Jenin. The Arab demonstrators also denigratedIsrael as a "police state," and called for "nationalunity" over the "Syrian Golan Heights," terroristprisoners in Israeli jails and what they called "theright of return" for Arab refugees currently outsideIsrael. As police reinforced their presence, the Arabdemonstrators flashed the "V for Victory" hand gestureand concluded with chants of "Here Palestine was lostand here we will regain it.